Method and Device for Automatically Conveying Liquids of Gases

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a device for conveying liquid and/or gaseous media, comprising at least two pumping chambers whose volumes change periodically during operation. Each pumping chamber is provided with at least one intake and discharge valve while all pumping chambers are fitted with a common main inlet and a common main outlet. A drive unit which is configured such that the volumes of the pumping chambers change at a phase shift of 2π/number of chambers is allocated to the pumping chambers. Also disclosed is a device for conveying liquid and/or gaseous media, comprising at least two pumping chambers whose volumes change periodically during operation. Said pumping chambers are embodied and disposed such that at least two adjacent pumping chambers encompass a joint wall which is configured so as to modify the volume of the adjacent pumping chambers. The invention further relates to a method for conveying liquid and/or gaseous media with the aid of the disclosed device. The device is triggered in such a way that the volumes of the pumping chambers change at a phase shift of 2π/number of chambers.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for the automated conveying of liquids or gases and in particular a pump.

For the automated conveying of liquids or gases, a multitude of apparatuses is known that can be subsumed under the term “pump”.

It can be differentiated between “open” and “closed” pumps. An example of an open pump is a bucket wheel, or a conveyor belt with liquid containers. A common feature of all closed pumps is that a defined volume that e.g. can be located in a chamber or a hose is being delivered by change, i.e. decrease, of the volume that is available for the pumping medium (chamber volume) in direction of the pump exit, and that new pumping medium is subsequently sucked in by increase of the pumping chamber volume. Generally, the flow direction is determined by according valves.

Known are i.e. piston pumps, wherein during the lowering phase, a piston displaces the volume being present in the pumping chamber through an outlet valve and sucks in new pumping medium during the subsequent rising phase through an intake valve, or membrane pumps, wherein a membrane that forms a wall of the pumping chamber, periodically raises and lowers, therefore increasing or decreasing the chamber volume. Mostly, the volume change takes place sine-shaped, as well resulting in an approximately sine-shaped ejection of the pump medium, wherein this only occurs during the positive half wave; the negative half wave serves for the intake of new pump medium. Further known are flexible tube pumps wherein an elastically deformable tube is divided in individual segments by means of movable, mechanical devices. The mechanical devices displace the segments along the feed direction of the tube, resulting in a transport of the pumping medium from the inlet to the outlet. Contrary to the piston operated pumps, the ejection occurs here intermittent-continuously.

Furthermore, so called impeller pumps are known that deliver a liquid by means of an impeller or a turbine that is arranged within a liquid channel.

However, the state of the art has the following disadvantages.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of the delivery rate P of a single chamber piston pump and of a hose pump over a complete pump cycle. On the abscissa, the time t is plotted.

Both aforementioned pump variants have the disadvantage that the delivery rate, i.e. the pump volume with respect to the time, strongly fluctuates when looked at a single pump cycle (period), as depicted in FIG. 1. The delivery behaviour of a piston pump is represented by the continuous or dashed sine shaped curve, and the delivery behaviour of a hose pump is represented as dotted rectangular curve that becomes zero at the beginning and the end of the complete pump cycle.

While for piston pumps with only one pumping chamber the first half of the pump cycle is used for emptying the pumping chamber (FIG. 1; continuous curve), during the second half of the pump cycle no ejection takes place, but only an intake of new pump medium (dashed curve). The pumping rate corresponds here schematically to the level of the curve; if the exit is looked at isolated, one can see a firstly weak, then continuously increasing liquid stream that then decreases again and eventually ebbs out, with a subsequent interval in which no liquid at all is delivered. By means of another as the sine shaped operation of the delivery piston, the pumping rate during the ejection can be kept more constant; however, the intake interval at the end of the ejection always remains.

Flexible hose pumps operate with a mechanical device (clamp unit or similar), which squeezes part of the hose, therefore generating sort of a “piston wall”. The same is then displaced in direction of the pump- and hose exit, wherein the volume being present in front of it is further displaced, and wherein an low pressure develops behind it by which new delivery medium is sucked in. Although flexible hose pumps achieve a rather constant delivery rate over a time span that depends on the length of the individual delivery segments; however, the same abruptly becomes zero in periodical intervals when an according segment ends. The mechanical device defining this segment lifts off from the hose at the end of the delivery cycle. Since the whole segment that is squeezed by the clamp unit just does not contain any volume (since it served as piston wall), in this moment, also no delivery medium is ejected. The herein described pulsating delivery of a pumping medium and the delivery behaviour of the both aforementioned pumps schematically depicted in FIG. 1 are often undesirable.

Furthermore, even by parallel connection of several phase shifted operating individual pumps, no total delivery rate can be achieved that has a significantly more continuous characteristic than each individual pump. Herein, also the cost as well as the space requirements for an according number of pumps is increased.

Although the known impeller pumps or turbine like pumps deliver a liquid in a very continuous manner, they however require a rotational drive unit, being therefore only complex and costly producible, in particular in a miniaturized design.

Task of the present invention is therefore provision of a method that allows for a mostly pulsation free delivery of a pumping medium with a high delivery rate. A further task of the present invention is the provision of an apparatus suitable for the method according to the invention, that can be simply and cost effectively realized also in a miniaturized design.

The task of the present invention is solved by the features of the independent claims. Advantageous embodiments are mentioned in the features of the subclaims and/or the following description that is accompanied by schematic drawings. Here, it is shown by:

FIG. 1 the delivery rate of a common piston pump and a common flexible hose pump;

FIG. 2 a schematic representation of an apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 a schematic representation of an apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 4 a and b a schematic representation of an apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5 a and b a variation of the apparatus according to the invention of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 a schematic representation of the drive principle according to the invention and steps of the method according to the invention; and a further variation of the apparatus according to the invention after FIGS. 4 and 5;

FIG. 7 a the stroke of the displacers of the apparatus of FIG. 6, FIG. 7 b the overall stroke of the apparatus of FIGS. 6, and 7 c the pumping capacity of an apparatus according to the invention with respect to the number of chambers;

FIGS. 8 a and b a schematic representation of an apparatus according to a further embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 a an apparatus according to a further embodiment of the present invention and FIG. 9 b a variation of the embodiment of FIG. 9 a; and

FIG. 10 a schematic representation of an apparatus according to a further embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention particularly relates to an apparatus for the delivery of liquid and/or gaseous media with a number of at least two pumping chambers whose volumes periodically changing during operation, wherein each pumping chamber has at least one intake- and discharge valve, and all pumping chambers have a common main inlet and a common main outlet, and wherein at least one drive unit is assigned to the pumping chambers that is embodied such that the volumes of the pumping chambers change with a phase shift of 2π/number of chambers.

The present invention further relates in particular to an apparatus for delivery of liquid and/or gaseous media with a number of at least two pumping chambers with volumes periodically changing during operation, wherein the pumping chambers are embodied and disposed such that at least two adjacent pumping chambers comprise a joint wall that is embodied in such a manner that it serves for the change of the volume of the adjacent pumping chambers.

By means of the intended volume change of the pumping chambers according to the invention with a phase shift of 2π/number of chambers and in particular by means of the coupling of the drive units according to the invention, advantageously a high pumping capacity with a particularly constant delivery rate is achieved.

Suitably, in an apparatus according to the invention the joint walls can be coupled with the drive units and/or comprise the drive units.

An apparatus according to the invention further comprises in particular an apparatus with a multitude of pumping chambers, and advantageously with less than 7 pumping chambers, and more advantageously with 3 pumping chambers, wherein for the operation of the pumping chambers, at least a number of drive units is provided that corresponds to the number of pumping chambers, wherein the pumping chambers are suitably embodied and disposed such that all pumping chambers have a first common drive unit with a first adjacent pumping chamber and a second common drive unit with a second adjacent pumping chamber, wherein the drive units are embodied such that they serve for the volume change of the respectively adjacent pumping chambers.

In the advantageous embodiment of an apparatus according to the invention with a drive unit that is embodied one-pieced with the wall of a pumping chamber, that drive unit can advantageously be at least partially embodied as a swinging membrane, and advantageously be embodied as a piezoelectric disc actuator.

Furthermore, an apparatus according to the invention suitably comprises a pressure-decoupled outlet.

The present invention furthermore relates in particular to a method for delivery of liquid and or gaseous media by aid of the previously described apparatus according to the invention, wherein the apparatus is suitably triggered such that the volumes of at least two pumping chambers change with a phase shift of 2π/number of chambers. With the method according to the invention, a method with a particularly high pumping capacity and constant delivery rate is provided.

Subsequently, advantageous exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in detail be means of the schematic drawings.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of an apparatus 1 according to the invention with two adjacently arranged pumping chambers 10, that for example and advantageously have approximately the same volume V and an intake valve 11 and an discharge valve 12 and a common main inlet 110 and a common main outlet 120, respectively. Both adjacent pumping chambers 10 have a common drive unit A that is embodied as an at least partially movable joint wall 13. Upon operation of the apparatus 1 according to the invention of FIG. 2 by means of the drive unit A, the respective volume V of one chamber 10 is increased, wherein at the same time, the volume of the other chamber 10 is decreased, so that upon suitable triggering of the drive unit A, a pumping capacity P is achieved that is superior compared to a common device of FIG. 1. In addition to the common drive unit A, the pumping chambers 10 of the apparatus 1 of FIG. 2 can comprise an additional drive unit arranged at the sides opposite to the drive unit A, so that the pumping capacity P is further improved.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic representation of an apparatus 1 according to the invention with three adjacently arranged pumping chambers 10, that for example and advantageously have approximately the same volume V and that respectively have an intake valve 11 and an discharge valve 12 and a common main inlet 110 and a common main outlet 120. The construction of apparatus 1 of FIG. 3 essentially corresponds to the construction of apparatus 1 of FIG. 2, wherein the central pumping chamber 10 has a respective common drive unit A with its adjacent pumping chambers 10 which can suitably be embodied as an at least partially movable joint wall 13. Upon suitable triggering of the drive units A, an improved pumping capacity and more constant delivery rate can be achieved in comparison to the state of the art of FIG. 1 and the embodiment of FIG. 2. In the following description, the improved pumping capacity and delivery rate, the suitable control according to the invention, and the method according to the invention are described by means of FIGS. 5 and 6 in detail. It is clear that both exterior pumping chambers 10 of the apparatus of FIG. 1 can also comprise additional drive units A that suitably can be embodied as movable walls 13 as well.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic drawing of a variation of the apparatus 1 according to the invention of FIG. 3, that essentially corresponds to the apparatus 1 of FIG. 3, with the difference that two central pumping chambers 10 comprise a common drive unit A, and furthermore that both central pumping chambers 10 are adjacently arranged with a third pumping chamber 10, having a common drive unit A with the third pumping chamber 10. In the embodiment of FIG. 4 this is constructively advantageously solved such that two externally arranged pumping chambers 10 are connected via a channel 101 to each other so that in this way, the third pumping chamber 10 is provided. FIG. 4 a shows a schematic top view onto the apparatus 1 according to the invention, and FIG. 4 b shows a schematic side view of FIG. 4 a from direction S.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic representation of a variation of the apparatus 1 of FIG. 4, which differs from the previously described embodiment of FIG. 4 only by the arrangement of the intake valves 11 and the discharge valves 12. Herein, FIG. 5 a shows a schematic longitudinal cut through the apparatus 1 according to the invention, and FIG. 5 b shows a schematic perspective representation of the cut of FIG. 5 a.

In the following, the principle that the invention is based on is described by the example of an apparatus 1 according to the invention of FIGS. 5 a and b and in connection with FIG. 6, having for example and advantageously three pumping chambers 10. It should be mentioned that the principle also comprises all other numbers of chambers n greater than 1.

The apparatus 1 of FIGS. 5 and 6 comprises the stack like arranged pumping chambers 10, that are separated by the drive units A and the movable walls 13 from each other. Each pumping chamber 10 has an intake valve 11 as well as a discharge valve 12. The volume V of the respective pumping chamber 10 being limited by these walls 13 is cyclically changed by means of the movements of the walls 13. The specific conveying quality is achieved in that one pumping chamber 10 is limited by two walls 13 that are swinging phase shifted and approximately sine shaped.

For example, the walls 10 can be embodied as cylindrical displacers, that—starting from a neutral position—at least partially empty the respective volume being assigned to them, or accordingly increase its respective capacity. However, the described principle is also true for differently embodied displacers and/or such displacers whose movement does not occur exactly sine shaped, as long as their movement pattern occurs uniformly and with a phase shift of the displacer movements of approximately 120° or 240°, respectively.

FIGS. 6 a, b and c depict exemplarily three characteristic states in the curse of operation of the apparatus 1 during a complete pumping cycle. The positions of the displacers 13 of FIGS. 6 a, b and c are also shown in FIG. 7 (vertical lines at ½π, π and 3/2π). In the state of FIG. 6 a (t=½π), the left membrane is located just at the upper dead-centre position, the centre membrane is located between one dead-centre position and the central position, and the right membrane is located between the central position and a dead centre-position. The arrows of FIG. 6 indicate the movement directions or the flow of the pumping medium, respectively, wherein a missing arrow means standstill. The position of the valves that are assigned reference numbers to is open, and the position of the valves without reference numbers is closed. If two displacers 13 are moving relatively towards each other, the pumping chamber pressure increases and volume discharges (see e.g. FIGS. 6 a and b, left pumping chamber). If two displacers 13 are moving relatively away from each other, the pumping chamber pressure decreases and volume streams in (see e.g. FIG. 6 a central pumping chamber and FIG. 6 b, left pumping chamber). If the displacers 13 move in consonance, the pumping chamber volume remains unchanged, and no medium streams in or out (see e.g. FIG. 6 b, central chamber).

In the following, the formulae that underlie the principle according to the invention are specified and described. Also here, the aforementioned example of an apparatus 1 according to the invention of FIGS. 5 and 6 is used; analogously, the formulae can be rewritten to any other number of pumping chambers n.

Chamber volume V and displacer 13

The apparatus 1 comprises three pumping chambers 10 with respective volumes V that are suitably and for the sake of simplicity approximately identical, being labelled here with V1, V2, and V3. It is clear that the volumes V can be different as well.

It should be noted that for the apparatus of FIGS. 5 and 6, the volume V of one of the pumping chambers 10 is composed of two semi-volumes that are connected via a channel 101 to each other, so that effectively, only one volume V has to be looked at.

The stroke m of the three displacers 13 is accordingly labelled with m₁, m₂, and m₃ in the following, and is depicted in FIG. 7. A pump cycle has the length 2π.

Pumping Capacity of the Individual Pumping Chambers 10, Total Pumping Capacity

Based on the fact of a closed system (inlet and exit are connected, optional valves are always open), it is given that:

V _(total) =V ₁ +V ₂ +V ₃=const.  Equation (1)

The pumping capacity of a single chamber 10 is defined by the amount of volume being transported per time unit. This results from the difference of the displacer strokes m that enclose the according volume V, multiplied by the base area A of the displacers 13 that are, for the sake of simplicity, also regarded as being approximately identical.

$\frac{V_{1}}{t} = {\left( {\frac{m_{1}}{t} - \frac{m_{2}}{t}} \right) \cdot A_{1}}$ $\frac{V_{2}}{t} = {\left( {\frac{m_{2}}{t} - \frac{m_{3}}{t}} \right) \cdot A_{2}}$ $\frac{V_{3}}{t} = {\left( {\frac{m_{3}}{t} - \frac{m_{1}}{t}} \right) \cdot A_{3}}$

The total pumping capacity P is composed of the individual volume streams:

$\begin{matrix} {\frac{V_{total}}{t} = {\frac{V_{1}}{t} + \frac{V_{2}}{t} + \frac{V_{3}}{t}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} (2)} \end{matrix}$

Valves 11, 12

Suitably, each chamber 10 has a discharge valve 12 and an intake valve 11 that are arranged according to the function as depicted in FIG. 6.

The function of a check valve can be described very easily in a way such that it lets pass the flow only on positive, but not on negative pressure.

$\frac{V_{1}^{\prime}}{t} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix} \left. {\left( {\frac{m_{1}}{t} - \frac{m_{2}}{t}} \right) \cdot A_{1}}\rightarrow \right. & {\frac{m_{1}}{t} < \frac{m_{2}}{t}} \\ \left. 0\rightarrow \right. & {\frac{m_{1}}{t} \geq \frac{m_{2}}{t}} \end{matrix}\frac{V_{2}^{\prime}}{t}} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix} \left. {\left( {\frac{m_{2}}{t} - \frac{m_{3}}{t}} \right) \cdot A_{2}}\rightarrow \right. & {\frac{m_{2}}{t} < \frac{m_{3}}{t}} \\ \left. 0\rightarrow \right. & {\frac{m_{2}}{t} \geq \frac{m_{3}}{t}} \end{matrix}\frac{V_{3}^{\prime}}{t}} = \left\{ \begin{matrix} \left. {\left( {\frac{m_{3}}{t} - \frac{m_{1}}{t}} \right) \cdot A_{3}}\rightarrow \right. & {\frac{m_{3}}{t} < \frac{m_{1}}{t}} \\ \left. 0\rightarrow \right. & {\frac{m_{3}}{t} \geq \frac{m_{1}}{t}} \end{matrix} \right.} \right.} \right.$

Correspondingly, it is given that:

$\begin{matrix} {\frac{V_{total}^{\prime}}{t} = {\frac{V_{1}^{\prime}}{t} + \frac{V_{2}^{\prime}}{t} + \frac{V_{3}^{\prime}}{t}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} (3)} \end{matrix}$

Displacer Movement

The displacers 13 displacing the chamber volume V carry out cyclic movements. If e.g. the stroke m corresponds to a sine wave, it is given that:

$\begin{matrix} {m = {{{M \cdot {\sin \left( {{\omega \; t} + \phi} \right)}}\mspace{14mu} {with}\mspace{14mu} \omega} = \frac{2\pi}{\tau}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} (4)} \end{matrix}$

Herein, m is the stroke, M is the amplitude, τ is the cycle time, ω is the angular frequency, and σ is the phase shift.

For the derivative d/dt of a chamber stroke m_(i) one therefore gets:

$\begin{matrix} {\frac{m_{i}}{t} = {\frac{2\pi}{\tau} \cdot M_{i} \cdot {\cos \left( {{\omega \; t} + \phi_{i}} \right)}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} (5)} \end{matrix}$

Here, it must be noted that:

ϕ₁ = 0 $\phi_{2} = {{{\frac{1}{3} \cdot 2}\pi} = {\frac{2}{3}\pi}}$ $\phi_{3} = {{{\frac{2}{3} \cdot 2}\pi} = {\frac{4}{3}\pi}}$

Thus, the phase shifts of the displacers 13 to each other amount to ⅔π (this corresponds to 120°) or 4/3π (this corresponds to 240°), respectively, for the regarded example with three chambers 10.

In general, for the phase difference, it is given that

$\begin{matrix} {{\phi_{i} = {\frac{2\pi}{n}\left( {i - 1} \right)}},} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} (6)} \end{matrix}$

wherein n is the number of chambers.

For a coupling of the displacer strokes, the expressions for dm_(i)/dt with i=1 to 3 must only be inserted into equation (3), and one gets the total delivery rate of the apparatus in dependence on the time Inserting τ=2π for the cycle time, the individual delivery rates and the total delivery rate appear as in FIG. 7 b when normalized to the cross section A.

From the figure it also can be seen that the total delivery rate G is composed of the individual delivery rates of two accordingly adjacent pumping chambers 10.

It should be noted that the principle according to the invention is only realizable if the discharge volume passing through a discharge valve 12 is independent from the volume of the respective other discharge valves 12, i.e. if the chamber outlets are pressure-decoupled.

Number of Chambers (n)

The principle of an apparatus according to the invention 1 is not limited to the aforementioned exemplary embodiment with n=3 pumping chambers 10, wherein with an increasing number of chambers n, the delivery rate P rises, and wherein, however, odd numbers of chambers n result in a lesser pulsation than even numbers of chambers n.

Since, as presented, the delivery rate P increases as well with an increasing number of chambers n, the question arises whether the delivery rate P can arbitrarily be increased, or if a limit value exists that can not be reached or also be overshot, even by a theoretically infinite number of chambers.

For this, firstly, the average value of the total delivery rate of an apparatus 1 can be looked at. This corresponds to the integral of the total delivery rate P over a full cycle:

$\begin{matrix} {{\frac{}{t}V_{mean}^{\prime}} = {\frac{1}{\tau}{\int_{0}^{\tau}{\frac{}{t^{*}}{{V_{total}^{t}\left( t^{*} \right)} \cdot \ {t}}}}}} & {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} (7)} \end{matrix}$

If now the average delivery rate is compared with the dependence of the number of chambers n, the connection as depicted in FIG. 7 c arises. According to that, a limit value exists that can not be overshot even with ever-increasing numbers of chambers n. Beginning with a number of n=7 chambers, only an increase of a few percent can be achieved, and from n=15 chambers, virtually no increase of the average total delivery rate is possible. (The values given in the curve come from a calculation of a miniaturized apparatus with realistic parameters.)

Comparison with a Combination of Several Separately Arranged Apparatuses

It seems to be obvious to let several separately operating apparatuses work in a phase shifted mode and regard their common output as total delivery rate instead of using the invention's chamber coupling that firstly appears to be complex. Each of the apparatuses has an individual inlet, which is connected to a common main inlet, and an individual exit, which leads in a delivery volume having atmospheric pressure.

However, the total delivery rate of separate apparatuses lies (with a smaller number of chambers) significantly under the total delivery rate of an apparatus 1 according to the invention. This effect is based on the fact that by means of the displacers 13, a significantly larger displacement volume can be produced.

However, it must be taken into account that this advantage is not true for arbitrary numbers of chambers n. From FIG. 7 c it can be derived that the increase of the delivered volume strongly rises for n=2 and n=3 but then flattens out more and more. The reason for this is the fact that for a larger number of chambers, the phase shifts between adjacent chambers decrease; the displacers 13 swing more and more in-phase, the volume increase by displacers partially swinging in opposite directions is then almost no more present. In contrary, for parallel operating, uncoupled apparatuses, the total delivery rate increases proportionally to the number of pumps, no “saturation region” exists. However, numbers of pumps or chambers, respectively, greater than n=5 are of minor importance in practice due to constructive and economical reasons, whereas just the number of chambers n=3 is exceptionally advantageous because of the higher delivery rate as well as the lower pulsation.

However, it is clear that an apparatus 1 according to the embodiment of FIGS. 2 and 3 has a better delivery rate and lower pulsation compared to the state of the art, which can be shown by similar calculations as the calculations carried out for the embodiment of FIGS. 5 and 6. It is also clear that the embodiments of FIGS. 4 to 6 can have additional drive units A to the drive units A depicted in the drawings.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic representation of an apparatus 1 according to a further embodiment of the present invention with three adjacently arranged pumping chambers 10, whose common drive units A are also suitably embodied as at least partially movable joint walls 13, wherein the joint walls 13 are arranged approximately star-shaped, and the apparatus 1 is embodied approximately cylindrical. Herein, FIG. 8 a shows a schematic top view of the apparatus 1, and FIG. 8 b shows a schematic side view the from direction S of FIG. 8 a. From FIG. 8 it can be seen that the intake valves 11 and discharge valves 12 exemplarily and advantageously are arranged at the opposite walls of the apparatus 1.

FIG. 9 a shows a schematic representation of a further apparatus 1 according to the invention with three adjacently arranged pumping chambers 10 that exemplarily and advantageously have approximately the same volume V, and that are roughly arranged along a ring. For the sake of clarity and simplicity, the representation of valves was omitted in FIG. 9. In the embodiment of FIG. 9 a the three pumping chambers 10 respectively comprise a first and a second chamber volume that are connected via a channel 101 to each other. Furthermore, the three pumping chambers 10 are arranged subsequent to each other such that each pumping chamber 10 has a joint wall 13 with two further pumping chambers 10, wherein the joint wall 13 suitably is at least partially embodied as a common drive unit A of two pumping chambers 10.

FIG. 9 b shows a schematic representation of a variation of the apparatus 1 of FIG. 9 a with the pumping chambers 10 that are also arranged adjacent and roughly along a ring, wherein each pumping chamber 10 is connected via a channel 101 to two adjacent pumping chambers 10, and wherein the channels 101 respectively comprise suitable drive units A.

Suitably, the aforementioned method according to the invention described by aid of embodiments of FIGS. 5 and 6 is used as a suitable method for the operation of the embodiments of FIGS. 8 and 9.

It is clear that the embodiments of FIGS. 8 and 9 can also comprise more than three pumping chambers and that they furthermore can comprise additional drive units A beside the drive units A.

FIG. 10 shows a schematic representation of an apparatus 1 according to a further embodiment of the present invention with also three or more pumping chambers 10 and according drive units A, intake valves 11, discharge valves 12, a common main inlet 110 and a common main exit 120.

According to the invention, in the embodiment of FIG. 10, the pumping chambers 10 are roughly channel-like and arranged meander shaped. Suitably, the invention's channel-like pumping chambers 10 have common drive units A that are also embodied at least partially as a common moveable joint wall 13, and that are advantageously subsequently arranged along a line.

By using the aforementioned described embodiment and arrangement of the pumping chambers 10 and the drive units A an exceptionally compact design in one plane is achieved that in particular can be fabricated miniaturized in a cost effective way. It is clear that the apparatus 1 according to the invention of FIG. 10 can also comprise only two pumping chambers 10 embodied channel-like and subsequently arranged roughly in one plane, and furthermore also more than three such pumping chambers 10.

It is further clear that the apparatus 1 of FIG. 10 can also comprise additional drive units A of the pumping chambers 10. 

1. Apparatus (1) for the delivery of liquid and/or gaseous media, with a number (n) of at least two pumping chambers (10) whose volumes (V) periodically change during operation, wherein: each pumping chamber (10) has at least one intake- and discharge valve (12); and all pumping chambers (10) have a common main inlet (110) and a common main outlet (120); and at least one drive unit (A) is assigned to the pumping chambers (10) that is embodied such that the volumes (V) of the pumping chambers (10) change with a phase shift of 2π/number of chambers (n).
 2. Apparatus (1) for the delivery of liquid and/or gaseous media, with a number (n) of at least two pumping chambers (10) whose volumes (V) periodically change during operation, wherein: the pumping chambers (10) are embodied and disposed such that at least two adjacent pumping chambers (10) comprise a joint wall (13) that is embodied such that it serves for the change of the volume (V) of the adjacent pumping chambers (10).
 3. Apparatus (1) according to claim 1 with the features of the apparatus (1) of claim 1, wherein the joint walls (13) are coupled with the drive units (A) and/or comprise the drive units (A).
 4. Apparatus (1) according to claim 1 with a number (n) of less than seven pumping chambers (10).
 5. Apparatus (1) according to claim 4 with a number (n) of three pumping chambers (10).
 6. Apparatus (1) according to claim 4, with a number of at least (2n−1) drive units.
 7. Apparatus (1) according to claim 4, with a number of at least (2n) drive units.
 8. Apparatus (1) according to claim 1 wherein: the pumping chambers (10) are embodied and disposed such that at least a first pumping chamber (10) comprises a first common drive unit (A) with a first adjacent pumping chamber (10), and a second common drive unit (A) with a second adjacent pumping chamber (10), wherein the drive units (A) a embodied such that they serve for the change of the volume (V) of the respectively adjacent pumping chambers (10).
 9. Apparatus (1) according to claim 1 wherein: the pumping chambers (10) are embodied and disposed such that all pumping chambers (10) have a first common drive unit (A) with a first adjacent pumping chamber (10), and a second common drive unit (A) with a second adjacent pumping chamber (10), wherein the drive units (A) a embodied such that they serve for the change of the volume (V) of the respectively adjacent pumping chambers (10).
 10. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: the common drive units (A) are embodied at least partially as a swinging membrane.
 11. Apparatus according to claim 10, wherein: the common drive units (A) are at embodied at least partially as piezo disc actuator.
 12. Apparatus (1) according to claim 1, wherein: the pumping chambers (10) are arranged subsequently to each other and/or on top of each other and/or in one plane and/or along a ring and/or along a circle.
 13. Apparatus (1) according to claim 1, wherein: at least one of the pumping chambers (10) is embodied cylinder-shaped or rectangular or ball-shaped or channel-like.
 14. Apparatus (1) according to claim 1, wherein: the volumes (V) and volume changes of the pumping chambers (10) are roughly identical.
 15. Apparatus (1) according to claim 1, wherein: an outlet and inlet of the pumping chambers (10) is embodied pressure-decoupled.
 16. Apparatus (1) according to claim 1, wherein: the valves of the pumping chambers (10) are passive check valves and/or actively controllable valves.
 17. Method for delivery of liquid and/or gaseous media using an apparatus (1) according to claim 1, wherein: the apparatus (1) is triggered in such a way that the volumes (V) of the pumping chambers (10) change with a phase shift of 2π/number of chambers (n). 